3. The Other Me - This song kind of sucks. I dont like Pauls voice here. It doesnt flow. Too jerky for me.

4. Keep Under Cover - I like the frantic violin part and thats about it. Nothing happens afterwards. Such a letdown. Below average song.

5. So Bad - So Bad is about right. That falsetto kills any credibility this song might have had. Awful and I cant believe this was one of the more popular songs off the record.

6. The Man - The absolute worst piece of music ever put to paper. Words cant describe how horrendous this song is.

7. Sweetest Little Show - This song is so neutral to me that I have a hard time remembering it. Its not bad, but its not good either. Background music and nothing else.

8. Average Person - I like this song. Probably my favorite on the album. It drives and gets out of its own way at least. I like the tempo and its enjoyable.

9. Hey Hey - Jam piece and the drumming by Steve Gadd is great, but its a forgettable tune for sure. Nothing great and its there just to fill space I think.

10. Tug Of Peace - Stupid blend of 'Pipes Of Peace' and 'Tug Of War' with the heavy 80's sound. Terrible and a waste of space.

11. Through Our Love - Another slower, vanilla song that doesnt even reach the radar. I'll forget how it goes by the time i'm done typing this.

[bonus tracks]

12. Twice In A Lifetime - Paul sang he didnt want to step on anybodys toes with this song, and he accomplished that. Truly boring and filler material and thats if its lucky.

13. We All Stand Together - Ahh, the Rupert and the Frog song. I'll spare it a little bit of wrath due to the fact that its a childrens tune. The kitten meows and some of the chorus wanted me to look for cynadie pills, a tall bridge, or even a noose, but the actual orchestra is kind of nice. I really cant take it seriously though.

14. Simple as That - If 'Average Person' isnt my favorite tune on the CD, then this is. Its one of those earworm songs. Once I listen to it, I cant get it out of my head. Its good.

Well, after dusting this CD off, I wasnt sure what to think. It was almost as though it was a new CD, because I certainly didnt remember most of it. All I remembered when I broke it out was how bad it was upon the first few initial listens. What I found was,,,its tolerable. It has three songs I like, but dont love by any stretch of the imagination. Theres a couple that I can listen to, but could care less if i've ever heard them again. Then, theres some that are just bad beyond belief. In conclusuion, its going to be years before I ever listen to this again. Its just not very good and definately not as interesting as 'Press' in my opinion.

nimrod

What? The majority of Pauls albums were better. McCartney 1 actually sucked to be honest.

Well Todd, I did say IMO..

McCartney 1 offered something new IMO, it was Pauls solo album, he showed us that he was a one man band, if any of us doubted it.I always thought the album was brillant, stand out tracks = Maybe Im Amazed, Junk, Every Night I suppose I just like the atmosphere throughout the album though and the fact that he wasnt aiming for a number 1 to compete with all the glam rockers at the time, whilst playing everything could be said to be egotistical I dont think Paul at this stage was obsessed with the charts, that seemed to come when he involved other musicians, I wish he'd have made more albums like McCartney 1.Please accept that all the above is very much my own opinion though and not meant to wind anybody up

McCartney 1? Hmm, the first thing I have to say is that I find it almost unbelievable that 'Maybe I'm Amazed' came from that mess. It is so much better than everything else on the record that its almost comical. The production on the record sounds like something I could do in my bathroom, but not 'Maybe I'm Amazed'. I wonder why that is? Oh well, I like McCartney 1, but its a bottom feeder when it comes to his solo efforts.

After Tug Of War, Pipes Of Peace was my first real encounter with Paul McCartney in my teen years. Oh yes, I knew about Wings of course, but wasn't aware of the 70's albums at the moment they were released. Pipes Of Peace was actually the first album by Paul I was looking forward to. My girlfriend of the day bought it and we listened to it together. I have always thought it wasn't that bad. Looking at the album as it was released in the mid 80's, it was at least a step higher than the average level of songs on the radio. Looking back on it, I still like a couple of songs enough to listen to it every now and then. Pipes Of Peace, Average Person and even Keep Under Cover. Songs like Hey Hey, Tug Of Peace and So Bad are certain skips tho.

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nimrod

McCartney 1? Hmm, the first thing I have to say is that I find it almost unbelievable that 'Maybe I'm Amazed' came from that mess. It is so much better than everything else on the record that its almost comical. The production on the record sounds like something I could do in my bathroom, but not 'Maybe I'm Amazed'. I wonder why that is? Oh well, I like McCartney 1, but its a bottom feeder when it comes to his solo efforts.

Just my opinion.

maybe its the DIY atmosphere I like

I an enormous fan of the Beatles, but not of their solo careers, I dont like any of Pauls solo albums, just the odd track here and there, same with John, I only like about 20% of his solo stuff, even less with George, sorry folks.

i adore mccartney 1,and i think along the same lines as nimrod when he says he enjoys the 'd.i.y feel',i can feel the air of 1970 when i listen to the album and i don't get that from any other macca solo effort.it's one of my top 3 mccartney solo albums and there is not a track on there that i don't like.maybe i'm amazed is amazing,singalong junk is just beautiful.the album does not suck.it's a bloody good record.pipes of peace isn't so strong but as i have said before i'm not too sure if it really deserves a good leathering,either.not many big acts came through the 80s with a lot of credit and paul did produce some songs on albums that maybe were not so strong,but he's always done that anyway hasn't he?i don't think pipes is an absolute stinker,i can listen to it without wincing.you have to be a big paul fan with this kind of album.give me pipes of peace over broad street,red rose speedway and off the ground anyday.although side 1 of speedway i do like.so perhaps i should say i prefer pipes to side 2 of red rose speedway.

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......."but tonight,i just wanna stay in,and be with you"..............

Before I go on as I usually do, I must remind everyone and myself that we all have different opinions of music. There is no facts in that aspect. So, when I type my rebuttal, please take that in mind, because I know I have the habit of offending people pretty easily and thats not my intentions. Thanks.

No, it really isnt. It sounds like something somebody put together in their garage in a couple hours. If Paul submitted something like this on a Beatle album, he would have been crucified. I'm not sure why we're giving him a pass here.

After reading some opinions, I feel forced to review McCartney 1 also. I havent listened to it in years so I may very well be missing something.

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give me pipes of peace over broad street,red rose speedway and off the ground anyday.although side 1 of speedway i do like.so perhaps i should say i prefer pipes to side 2 of red rose speedway.

First of all, 'Off The Ground' is so underrated that I cant believe it gets mentioned in this breath. I think its a damn strong album. Really strong. As for 'Red Rose Speedway', Pipes couldnt hold its jock if it were a towel boy. 'RRS' is a superior album in every faucet. Even the medley that loses steam is better than anything off of 'Pipes'.

nimrod

I can see absolutely why people would think M 1 stinks, it sounds very unpro in the way it was recorded, and some of the tracks sound like he just made em up (Glasses - KK)...... but I dont know, I just have always loved it, for me its just got a great 'feel' to it, and yes I love its DIY feel, I think Paul was being very honest with it, its like the real him.

Im no fan of the rest of his solo career though with one or two exceptions like, Tomorrow, The Lovers That Never Were, Another Day, Here Today.

Before I go on as I usually do, I must remind everyone and myself that we all have different opinions of music. There is no facts in that aspect. So, when I type my rebuttal, please take that in mind, because I know I have the habit of offending people pretty easily and thats not my intentions. Thanks.

Well said Todd, I'd like to offer up the same caveat aswell.... though I've never found your posts offensive I do sometimes cringe at my own when I read them back and fear that I am coming across as over-opinionated, which is never my intention. So long as we all respect one another's right to differ (and I think we mostly do on this forum) then it's very healthy to read firm and contrasting points of view.

Right, with that out of the way...

Pipes Of Peace: I've re-listened to the album and, on the whole, it still gets a big thumbs up from me. I always listen to it in context as a gloriously commercial/accessible radio friendly pop album and feel it is Tug Of War part two... not just because of the obvious war/peace duality, but because the best tracks on here are every bit as strong as the impeccably high standard set by the 1982 album. In fact Paul's collaborations with Michael Jackson (Say Say Say and The Man) eclipse the rather hammier team up with Stevie Wonder on Ebony And Ivory (for me one of the few weaker spots on Tug Of War).

I like the title track. Why is it that when John (the repetitive, monotonous "Give Peace A Chance") or George (the thinly warbled "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)") sing about peace they are invested with praise and credibility, yet when Paul turns out a melodically superior, better structured song (Pipes Of Peace) it often gets dismissed as lightweight, frothy fare? I don't think it is!!!

There is filler on this album for sure (unlike Tug Of War) I can happily take or leave The Other Me (hate Paul's vocal and too much of a homey DIY feel to it for my liking) and Hey Hey, Tug Of Peace and all three bonus tracks are all eminently forgettable. I don't know if I ever even count The Frog Chorus as Paul anyway... does he actually sing or play on it? did he only produce it? seems to be mostly a kids' chorus, in much the same way as "Wonderwall Music" was produced by George without featuring the man himself (I think?).

Through Our Love and Sweetest Little Show are OK but no great shakes I suppose, though I think they hold up fairly well overall.

Three highlights for me though are Keep Under Cover (wonderful shifting, soaring/soothing vocals from Paul and a smoothly flowing momentum throughout - LOVE that frenetic violin too!) Average Person (a strong tune and a well constructed song) and (don't sneer) So Bad. For me that track keeps the right side of sickly; few but Paul could pull off those lyrics and that falsetto vocal with such aplomb, I really think he nails the simple beauty of being deeply in love. I can see it would be soppy and embarrassing in the hands of a lesser artist but Paul has enough sincerity and credibility to make it work. He rarely falls into syrupy sentimentality (though this does happen occasionally - My Love is truly horrendous, but then again I refuse to accept there is a single decent track anywhere on the grotesque Red Rose Speedway, one of the most abysmal albums Paul ever gave us as far as I'm concerned).

As for McCartney - too down home farm flavoured for my liking... there's "DIY" and then there's "Amateur" and it strays too close to the latter for me. I love Junk and one or two others are OK (Maybe I'm Amazed is a decent track but maybe I should tell you I AM amazed at how overpraised it is...almost up there with Yesterday as Paul's most overrated number, I just don't get all the fuss...it would be one of the average songs if it had been on Ram).

Ok, as if I haven't dropped enough bombshells and lit enough blue touchpapers for one post, I may aswell finish with a few lines about Press To Play. And I'm not wasting more than a few lines on it: garbage. Unforgivably for a talent of McCartney's stature it is bland and embarrassingly boring in the extreme. Not a single track engages me at all. They're forgotten the minute they're over. One of his worst I'm afraid...and I persevered with it for four complete play-throughs over three days. Terrible.

Right, I'm off to hide!!

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nimrod

I think Yesterday and Maybe Im Amazed are 2 of THE best songs Paul ever wrote, in fact Id put Yesterday as The best Beatle song, its an absolute classic (how many covers now?) I really wish he'd done more stuff like MIA throughout his silo career

The only redeeming factor is that Michael Jackson is on it. As a huge MJ fan, I like the collaborations. Say Say Say and The Man are great songs.

I can take or leave Jacko personally but I was uncomfortable with Paul's insistence on pairing up with others in the early 80's. As I said earlier I prefer Paul's collaborations with Jackson rather than Wonder, although the best tracks on Pipes Of Peace needed no input from MJ...and would you agree that "The Girl Is Mine" was awful?

I have that album on vinyl. I am not too fond of it, and I don't consider it a Paul McCartney solo album...so it doesn't really count.

That being said, there are some redeeming factors. But I don't like redone songs.

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I can take or leave Jacko personally but I was uncomfortable with Paul's insistence on pairing up with others in the early 80's. As I said earlier I prefer Paul's collaborations with Jackson rather than Wonder, although the best tracks on Pipes Of Peace needed no input from MJ...and would you agree that "The Girl Is Mine" was awful?

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge MJ fan. I've been a moderator on three different MJ forums over the past 8 years, and my Beatles collection is the only musical act that rivals my Michael Jackson collection.

That being said, I like The Man because Michael Jackson wrote it. At least, that's what it says in my lyrics sheet for Pipes Of Peace, and I think it's a good, not great, song.

The Girl Is Mine is a classic song, and absolutely brilliant. I tend to like all the songs on the Michael Jackson solo albums, even that godawful one that Stevie Wonder co-write with MJ for Bad.

In fact Paul's collaborations with Michael Jackson (Say Say Say and The Man) eclipse the rather hammier team up with Stevie Wonder on Ebony And Ivory (for me one of the few weaker spots on Tug Of War).

Regarding 'The Man' and 'Ebony And Ivory', i'd have to flip a coin to choose which one was worse. Both are dreadful.

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My Love is truly horrendous,

I like it.

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but then again I refuse to accept there is a single decent track anywhere on the grotesque Red Rose Speedway, one of the most abysmal albums Paul ever gave us as far as I'm concerned).

I like this album as well. There is much worse to choose from in his catalog.

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As for McCartney - too down home farm flavoured for my liking... there's "DIY" and then there's "Amateur" and it strays too close to the latter for me.

Well said and exactly how I feel.

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Ok, as if I haven't dropped enough bombshells and lit enough blue touchpapers for one post, I may aswell finish with a few lines about Press To Play. And I'm not wasting more than a few lines on it: garbage. Unforgivably for a talent of McCartney's stature it is bland and embarrassingly boring in the extreme. Not a single track engages me at all. They're forgotten the minute they're over. One of his worst I'm afraid...and I persevered with it for four complete play-throughs over three days. Terrible.

Not one song? Really? There's quite a few I enjoy on it. More than Macca 2 and Pipes put together actually.

Ironically, we both put the same amount of time and listens into these two albums.